UFC Featherweight Champion Ilia Topuria wants to emphatically establish superiority over Max Holloway next weekend in Abu Dhabi.
The importance of following up a title win with a successful defense is often a major part of the lead-up to a new champ's first attempt at batting away a challenger.
For some, that pressure might show. In that regard, Topuria is not 'some'.
"El Matador" has been his usual confident self ahead of his upcoming pay-per-view main event opposite Max Holloway at UFC 308 on Oct. 26. That's perhaps not a surprise given how he backed up his pre-fight talk with a destructive knockout of Alexander Volkanovski.
But based on the predictions he made during an appearance on Monday's episode of The Ariel Helwani Show on Uncrowned, Topuria could have a tougher time living up to his remarks come fight night at Etihad Arena.
The Georgian-Spaniard has long expressed his belief that "Blessed" won't escape Abu Dhabi without the first knockout loss of his career being added to his record.
Now, Topuria is even shooting for Jorge Masvidal's fastest-KO record, which came when he slept Ben Askren with a knee just five seconds into their showdown at UFC 239 in 2019.
There is no chance for Max. Forget about it. The only thing I'm praying for every day is I want him to show up, because I'm going to do the rest," Topuria said. "We already know who is the world champion. We're going to find out that I am the BMF also.
I will be there in the middle of the Octagon in the first 10 seconds. ... I want to have the fastest knockout in UFC history also, with my hands," Topuria continued. "Jorge has it with the knee, I want to do it with the hands. ... If he stays in the middle in the first 10 seconds of the fight, we're going to see the fastest knockout in UFC history.
Though not set to be officially on the line, talk of Holloway's symbolic BMF title has been prominent in the build-up to next weekend's PPV headliner.
Should he deliver on his promise to offer a stand-and-bang scenario to "Blessed" à la UFC 300 and emerge from such an exchange with his hand raised, perhaps the masses will get behind "El Matador" and his replica BMF belt.
Loading tweet...